Showing Off Prescriptive Analytics at NRF’s 2018 Big Show

They call the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) annual event in New York City the Big Show, and it couldn’t have a more accurate name. Our team headed down from Boston to share our solutions with the many retail influencers gathered there. Over the three-day show, our booth saw a consistent stream of visitors, and our team’s schedules were full of meetings with customers, partners, and media. Luckily, we were comfortable as we ran from meeting to meeting in our matching Adidas Superstar sneakers, kindly provided by a member of our board of advisors, an executive at Finish Line. Our coordinating footwear even caught the attention of RIS News’ Joe Skorupa, who voted Profitect “Best Sneakers” in his Best of NRF Big Show Awards roundup.

In addition to our lively booth presence, CEO Guy Yehiav was joined for an Exhibitor Big Ideas panel by customers Steve Zawlocki, a director at Belk and John Deane, CIO of ascena retail group. The panel, “A Pragmatic Approach to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Prescriptive Analytics” focused on how Belk and ascena retail group have approached prescriptive analytics by partnering with Profitect.

John Deane and Steve Zawlocki, who are well-respected industry innovators, discussed their requirements for a successful data analytics program with Profitect CEO Guy Yehiav: fast implementation, measurable results, and strong user interface. Steve Zawlocki, of Belk, explained that Profitect fits all of these demands – after kicking off a partnership with Profitect in November, our software was up and running within weeks. Steve said that Profitect has already made a positive impact on how his organization is run and that his employees have begun referring to our logo as “the magic box” because of how easy our software is to use. Not to be outdone, when referring to the success of Profitect, John Deane said “As a CIO, you wouldn’t believe the enthusiasm of end users when software has good usability.” We’ll have video of the session available soon – stay tuned!

Retail analytics were a hot topic at NRF this year, with many companies offering different dashboards for retailer information. Our solution distinguished itself from the many because it offers Prescriptive Analytics, not just another dashboard to view reports. We use pattern detection and machine learning to identify opportunities that impact sales and margins. We then provide our customers with easy to understand, step-by-step instructions to correct these: areas like inventory accuracy, out of stocks, pricing accuracy, unsellable merchandise, and assortment discrepancies. To learn more about the value of prescriptive analytics, wahttps://www.profitect.com/prescriptive-analyticstch Guy Yehiav’s interview with Vanessa Jo Roberts, editorial director of BizTech Magazine.

Another hot topic of the show, though loosely defined by many vendors at the conference, was machine learning and practical AI. Profitect was happy to educate attendees via a number of great conversations about monitoring processes across business areas of logistics, inventory, sales, marketing, planning & buying and DC operations and how machine learning and actionable AI in a straightforward way.

All in all, this year’s NRF was by far our best to date and we’re confident given the strong results from the conference that we’re going to be in for a very busy and exciting year ahead at Profitect. Happy 2018 to all!